Storm forces hurricane-themed Fox episodes off air

Fox is pulling a hurricane-themed crossover promotion of Seth MacFarlane’s animated shows due to the storms and tornado damage in the Southeastern United States that have killed about 300 people.

The network had planned to air linked episodes of Family Guy, American Dad! and The Cleveland Show on Sunday night. The new installments were to have an interconnected story line about a hurricane on the Eastern Seaboard.

In the 90-minute story, the hurricane was to hit the fictional communities of Stoolbend, Quahog and Langley Falls, according to a description posted by Fox network earlier last week. Those towns are the homes of the Brown/Tubbs, Griffin and Smith families, respectively, in MacFarlane’s animated series.

Fox decided to shelve the episodes after consulting with MacFarlane — the series’ creator — and other writers on the three comedy series. All agreed to put the segments on hold.

The episodes were written about 18 months ago, with the interconnected story a major part of Fox’s plans for May sweeps. They had been on the schedule for what was described as a “considerable” period.

Family Guy Hurricane

However, Fox said in a brief statement Friday: “In light of the recent storms that have affected the nation, Fox has decided to postpone the crossover episodes that were originally scheduled to air this Sunday.”

Those episodes will be shown next season instead, a spokeswoman for the network said. Reruns of all three series will air in their place Sunday night.

In a call with reporters last week, MacFarlane described the crossover concept, inspired by Fox Entertainment president Kevin Reilly’s idea, as an “enormous challenge.”